Device for making a culture of microorganisms

ABSTRACT

A device for making a culture of micro-organisms has an elongated member which advantageously supports a culture medium on each of two opposite flat faces. A container having an open end is provided for the elongated member. A brush mounted in the container contacts the elongated member intermediate its ends. The open end of the container has removable means to seal it. In a typical operation, the elongated member is removed from the container and the end thereof brought into contact with the area of the patient suspected of having micro-organsims. On returning the elongated member to the container it passes the brush which wipes along the member to brush the inoculum from the end along the culture medium. Advantageously, the container has a guide member to guide the elongated member and restrict its movement toward the interior surfaces of the container. Preferably the brush forms a part of the guide member and the elongated member has a plug adapted to form a seal with the guide member to permit the withdrawal of the elongated member from the container either independently of the guide member or together with the guide member.

United States Patent [72] Inventors Anthony J. Calabrese Malvern; JosephF. Pagano, Paoli, both of Pa. [211 App]. No. 848,212 [22] Filed Aug. 7,1969 [45] Patented Oct. 26, 1971 [73] Assignee Smith Kline & FrenchLaboratories Philadelphia, Pa.

[54] DEVICE FOR MAKING A CULTURE OF MICRO- ORGANISMS 10 Claims, 10Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S.C1 195/139, 195/100,l18/l21, 15/210 [51] Int. Cl Cl2b l/02 [50]Field of Search 195/139 LE, 139

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,308,039 3/1967 Nelson195/139 LE Primary Examiner-Alvin E. Tanenholtz Attorney-Busser, Smith &Harding ABSTRACT: A device for making a culture of micro-organisms hasan elongated member which advantageously supports a culture medium oneach of two opposite flat faces. A container having an open end isprovided for the elongated member. A brush mounted in the containercontacts the elongated member intermediate its ends. The open end of thecontainer has removable means to seal it. In a typical operation, theelongated member is removed from the container and the end thereofbrought into contact with the area of the patient suspected of havingmicro-organsims. On returning the elongated member to the container itpasses the brush which wipes along the member to brush the inoculum fromthe end along the culture medium. Advantageously, the container has aguide member to guide the elongated member and restrict its movementtoward the interior surfaces of the container. Preferably the brushforms a part of the guide member and the elongated member has a plugadapted to form a seal with the guide member to permit the withdrawal ofthe elongated member from the container either independently of theguide member or together with the guide member.

PATENTEDUCT 2 6 19H SHEET 10F 2 PRlOR ART FIG.

FIG. 6.

FIG. 7.

INVENTORS a O l E RM A 8 M AA P A 4 CF 0 YW NS u 0 U N Y A B IiATTORNEYS SHEET 2 BF 2 INVENTORS ANTHONY J. CALABRESE & JOSEPH F. PAGANOBM M lllII -IIIlllll !IIIII -IIIIIIIII PATENTEDUCT 2 6 I971 ATTORNEYSDEVICE FOR MAKING A CULTURE OF MICRO- ORGANISMS BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION Devices for making a culture of microorganisms having aculture medium which can be brought directly into contact with an areaof a patients body and then returned to a sealed container for growingmicro-organisms picked up are known to the art as is seen, for example,in the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,368,549, issued Feb. 13, 1968. Suchdevices have as their intended purpose providing office diagnosis within24 hours without the necessity for a laboratory. In heretofore knowndevices there has been difficulty in assessing the results achieved dueto the fact the inoculum is heavily concentrated in a single area anddilution is not possible. Isolated colonies are not seen because ofrestricted surface area. Further, difficulty has been encountered due tothe face that the inoculated culture medium comes into contact with thesides of the container and pennissible movement disrupts growth ofmicro-organisms. In addition, the visibility through the container hasbeen poor. All of these problems are solved in the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A device for making a culture ofmicro-organisms has an elongated support member which carries a culturemedium supported by said member preferably intermediate the endsthereof. A container having an open end is adapted to contain theelongated member and has a brush mounted therein to brush over the innerend of the elongated member and at least a portion of the culture mediumon insertion of the elongated member into the container. Preferably thecontainer is transparent and has flat surfaces through which the culturemedium is viewed. A seal for the open end of the container is providedand it advantageously forms a part of the elongated member.Advantageously a hollow guide member guides the elongated member withinthe container to restrict its movement towards the interior surfaces ofthe container. Preferably the brush forms a part of said guide memberand the elongated member has a plug engaging the guide member to sealthe container. Advantageously the guide member is removable.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a prior artdevice;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of a device in accordance with theinvention;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section taken on the plane indicated by the line3-3 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an end of view of the guide member and brush of the device ofFIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a side elevation of the structure of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the elongated support member of the deviceof FIG. 2 without the culture medium;

FIG. 7 is a top plan view, partially broken away, of the member of FIG.6 with the culture medium added;

FIG. 8 is a top plan view, partially broken away, of an alternativeelongated member having culture medium extending about the inner end;

FIG. 9 is an exploded broken away view of the device of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 10 is an exploded perspective view of the elongated member and theguide member and brush illustrating the spreading of the inoculum. PriorArt A typical prior art device is shown in FIG. 1. Here a glasscontainer tube 2 has a threaded cap 4 and contains a stick 6 having aframe end 8 for the support of a solid culture medium 10. It will benoted that the end portion 12 of the culture medium 10 is in contactwith the interior surface of the container 2.

Preferred Embodiment of the Invention Referring now to FIG. 2 a devicefor making a culture of micro-organisms in accordance with the inventionhas a transparent container 22 of, for example, glass or a plastic suchas an acrylic resin such as methyl methacrylate or a polycarbonateresin. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, an elongated member 24 has an innerend 25 and a recessed portion 26 in opposed substantially that faces(only one being shown). Each recessed portion is intermediate the endsof the elongated member 24 and has multiple small protrusions 30 tofacilitate the retention of a body 32 of a solid culture medium in therecessed portions. The culture medium is preferably flush with theadjoining portions the adjacent face 28.

The side edges of elongated member 24 are guided by opposed grooves 36,36 in hollow guide member 38 which has a cylindrical portion 40 (FIG. 5)provided with ridges 42 which sealingly engage a cylindrical entranceportion 44 of container 22. Guide member 38 is also provided withopposed flats 46, 46 which engage the flat top 48 and the flat bottom 50of container 22 (FIGS. 9 and 10). The inner end of guide member 38 has apair of opposed brush members 52, 52 positioned adjacent grooves 36, 36so as to engage elongated member 24 as it is inserted into container 22.Each brush member 52 has three spaced projections 54 for engaging theelongated member 24.

Guide member 38 has a cylindrical entrance portion 56 which is engagedby a plug portion 58 (FIG. 10) of member 24 having a peripheral ridge 60to seal closed the end of guide member 38. The outer end of elongatedmember 24 is in the form of handle 64.

Advantageously the guide member will be made of a resilient plastic suchas, for example, polyethylene or polypropylene and the brush member 52,52 will be integral therewith permitting the formation of the guidemember and the brush members in a single forming operation from the samematerial.

The culture medium will be selected depending upon the micro-organismsinvolved. Suitable solid culture mediums are well known to the an.Reference may be had, for example, to the culture mediums disclosed inUS. Pat. No. 3,368,549 the disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference. Agar culture mediums are preferred since their solidity isreadily controlled by varying the percent of Agar. Further typicalculture mediums are set forth below:

A. Moni-Tubefor isolation and presumptive identification of CandidaMedia-BIGGY Agar (formerly Nickerson) Formula Distilled water I l.Bismuth Ammonium Citrate 5 g. Sodium Sulfite 3 g. Dextrose l0 g. Glycinel0 g. Yeast Extract l g. Agar 2.0% of weight of the total formula.

B. Hemolytic Tubefor isolation and presumptive identification ofB-Hemolytic Streptococci Media-Trypticase Soy Agar with 5% DefibrinatedSheep Defibrinated Sheep blood 5% by weight of the total formula C.Bacteruria Tube-for isolation l l. bacteria from urine.

Media-Eosin Methylene Blue Agar Formula Distilled water I Differentformulae can be used on opposite sides of the elongated member forexample, the formula of A above on one side and the immediately aboveformula on the other side.

OPERATION In operation the elongated member 24 is removed from container22 by withdrawing through guide member 38. The end 25 is brought intocontact with the area of the patient which is suspected of havingrelevant micro-organism. The elongated member is then returned intocontainer 22 with grooves 36, 36 guiding it through brushes 52, 52 andpreventing it from touching the interior surfaces of container 22. Asthe end 25 of elongated member 24 passes through brushes 52, 52 theportions 54 wipe the inoculum from end 25 onto the bodies 32, 32 ofculture medium carried in the recessed portions 26, 26 in faces 28, 28.As illustrated in FliG. this results in placing three straight lines 68,70 and 72 of inoculum on each body of culture medium which dilutes theinoculum and provides isolated colonies.

If it is desired to closely inspect the elongated member 24 during thegrowth of micro-organisms this can be done readily by removing themember 24 together with the guide member 38 thus preventing brushes 52,52 from further brushing the culture medium.

ALTERNATIVE EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIG. 8, if desired, a modifiedelongated member 80 can be employed. Member 80 is the same as member 24but provides for a body 82 of culture medium on both sides (only oneside being shown) which extends beyond the inner end of member 80 asindicated at 84. To facilitate this arrangement, the body 82 of culturemedium is carried in a recessed portion 86 on each side, protrusions 88being employed to assist in retaining the body of culture medium. Eachrecessed portion 86 extends to the end 90 of member 88.

The above-described embodiments are illustrative and are not intended tobe limiting.

We claim:

1. A device for making a culture of micro-organisms comprising: anelongated member, a culture medium supported by said member intermediatethe ends thereof, a container for the elongated member having an openend, brush means mounted in the container and positioned for contactingthe elongated member intermediate its ends so as to brush over at leasta portion of the culture medium on insertion of the elongated memberinto the container and means to seal the open end of the container.

2. The device of claim 1 in which the culture medium extends to andcovers at least a portion of the inner end of the elongated member.

3. The device of claim 1 in which the sealing means includes a plug onthe elongated member.

4. The device of claim 1 in which the brush is removably mountedadjacent the open end of the container.

5. The device of claim I in which a hollow guide member is mounted inthe open end of the container to guide the elongated member and restrictits movement towards the interior surfaces of the container.

6. The device of claim 1 in which a body of culture medium is supportedon each of two opposite sides of the member elongated.

7. The device of claim 6 in which the culture medium bodies on oppositesides of the elongated member are different.

8. The device of claim 6 in which the guide member is removable.

9. The device claim 1 in which the container is transparent. 10. Thedevice of claim 9 in which the container has a flat portion opposite theelongated member for viewing the culture medium.

i t l 8 I9

2. The device of claim 1 in which the culture medium extends to andcovers at least a portion of the inner end of the elongated member. 3.The device of claim 1 in which the sealing means includes a plug on theelongated member.
 4. The device of claim 1 in which the brush isremovably mounted adjacent the open end of the container.
 5. The deviceof claim 1 in which a hollow guide member is mounted in the open end ofthe container to guide the elongated member and restrict its movementtowards the interior surfaces oF the container.
 6. The device of claim 1in which a body of culture medium is supported on each of two oppositesides of the member elongated.
 7. The device of claim 6 in which theculture medium bodies on opposite sides of the elongated member aredifferent.
 8. The device of claim 6 in which the guide member isremovable.
 9. The device claim 1 in which the container is transparent.10. The device of claim 9 in which the container has a flat portionopposite the elongated member for viewing the culture medium.